Delta-sigma modulators are particularly useful in digital to analog and analog to digital converters (DACs and ADCs). Using oversampling, the delta-sigma modulator spreads the quantization noise power across the oversampling frequency band, which is typically much greater than the input signal bandwidth. Additionally, the delta-sigma modulator performs noise shaping by acting as a lowpass filter to the input signal and a highpass filter to the noise; most of the quantization noise power is thereby shifted out of the signal band.
The typical delta sigma modulator includes a summer summing the input signal with negative feedback, a loop filter, a quantizer, and a feedback loop coupling the quantizer output and the inverting input of the summer. In a first order modulator, the loop filter includes a single integrator or other filter stage while the loop filter in a higher order modulator has a cascade of a corresponding number of filter stages. Higher-order modulators have improved quantization noise transfer characteristics over those of lower order, but stability becomes a more critical design factor as the order increases. The quantizer can be either a one-bit or a multiple-bit quantizer.
In DAC applications, such as low out-of-band noise DACs, continuous-time output stages, such as current summers, which convert the quantized modulator output into a relatively smooth analog signal have a number of advantages over discrete-time output stages, such as switched capacitor output stages. For example, in DAC systems in which the modulator output is quantized into a large number of levels (e.g. sixty-four or more levels represented by eight or more bits), continuous-time output stages are relatively easy to design and construct. In addition, continuous-time output stages operating on a large number of quantization levels are relatively immune to jitter and the problem of sampling of far out-of-band energy. These advantages make continuous-time output stages the best choice for integration into large digital chips. With respect to smaller data converters and coder-decoders (Codecs), avoiding the sampling of high frequency energy allows for the simplification of the clock management scheme.
Despite their advantages, continuous-time output stages are also subject to significant drawbacks, such as a susceptibility to inter-symbol interference. (Inter-symbol interference or ISI in this case is usually caused by asymmetry in leading and trailing edges of the output signals from continuous time elements or from analog memory, in which each symbol is dependent on the prior one.) ISI can dominate the noise and distortion components in the output analog stream of a continuous-time data converter, even if a large number of continuous-time conversion elements operate on data samples with a large number of quantization levels. While ISI can be minimized using return to zero (RTZ) techniques, RTZ techniques generally cause increased circuit sensitivity to the characteristics of the controlling clocks.
Therefore, improved circuits and methods are required which allow continuous-time output stages to be utilized in such applications as DACs while minimizing ISI and at the same time reducing the effects of clock characteristics on circuit performance.